


The Winter Captain

by WithTheKeyIsKing



Category: Captain America (Movies), The Avengers (Marvel) - All Media Types
Genre: (sort of), Blackmail, Captain America: The Winter Soldier, Gen, Hydra Steve Rogers, Kidnapping, References to The Avengers, Torture, ish, slight stockholm syndrome
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-12-09
Updated: 2015-12-09
Packaged: 2018-05-05 09:19:24
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,078
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5370002
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/WithTheKeyIsKing/pseuds/WithTheKeyIsKing
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>What if Hydra had found Steve in the ice instead of SHIELD?</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Winter Captain

Steve opened his eyes slowly, giving himself time to adjust to the new light. When there were no more spots in his eyes he could see a tiled ceiling above him, florescent lights spaced evenly throughout it.

After a few moments of wondering how he could possibly be alive, Steve sat up and looked around. He was lying in a small bed in a small room. It felt familiar, looking similar to a single hospital room. Steve instantly relaxedhe'd survived diving the plane into the Atlantic, somehow. They'd brought him home.

The blonde man sat there for what was maybe a few minutes, content to just _be_ for a while, before there was a light knock on the door and it swung open. A man who seemed to be in his mid-to-late-sixties entered. He wore an expensive looking three-piece suit and circular glasses. He had his hands tucked into the pockets of his trousers, and though his smile was warm and open, there was a cold and calculating look in his eyes, gazing over Steve analytically. In made Steve slightly uncomfortable, but he figured this was just some government official, sent to see him.

"Captain, it's very good to see you awake," the man's voice was smooth, and he took a few extra steps into the room. Steve stood up to greet him, and shook his hand when the man offered his. "My name is Alexander Pierce, I'm in charge of this facility, so when it was seen that you were awake, well, I thought it best to come and welcome you myself. A lot has changed, Captain."

Steve nodded. "I figured it might've. How long have I been unconscious, and how soon can I leave? It's not that I'm not grateful to you for saving me, I truly am, but I..." Steve hesitated, but figured there was no point in lying to this man. "Well, I have a date I'd really like to keep."

Mr. Pierce's seemed to be conflicted between feeling amused and something resembling sadness. "I'm sorry, Captain Rogers, there's some things I need to tell you..."

* * *

It had been sixty-seven years since he had been awake. Sixty-seven years since the second world war had ended. Sixty-seven years since he had dived the plane into the Atlantic to save America. Sixty-seven years since Bucky had died and Peggy had made a date with him.

For seven days after his official wake up, Steve was given a bunch of books on worldand Americanhistory to help him get caught up on what had happened since he went under. Steve was, frankly, quite fascinated by it all. The Arms Race, the Vietnam War; so many things that had occurred, barely any of them good. Of course, Steve was quite happy about people being much more okay with the LGBT community, and the fact that there was a black president; both of these things were good steps in moving forward.

He was kept restrained to the facility (Mr. Pierce called it the Alpha Complex) because they wanted him to first understand everythingthat it was a completely different world, and didn't want to just shove him out into it without any preparation. He accepted that, finding it reasonable, but he was itching to go out into the world; apparently, Peggy was still alivehe wanted to go see her badly, just to make sure she really was alright.

On the night of the eighth day of his revival, he was sparring with some guys in the large gym that Alpha Complex had. Steve really got along with a man named Nicklaus Argent; he was a good fighter with an easy smile and a good sense of humor. Usually Steve ate meals with Nicklaus ("please, call me Nick") and a couple other people, including a man named Brock Rumlow. Brock had this strange intensity about him, but was quick with a joke and very skilled with a gun, so Steve respected him.

Steve was sparring with a quiet man named Jack Summers, who was quizzing him about modern history between each punch, when Mr. Pierce had entered the gym. "Rogers!" He called across the large area. Jack immediately stepped back from their fight, giving Steve a small smile before walking over to the line of punching bags and starting to work one over. Steve gave himself a moment to catch his breathjust like everyone else at the Complex seemed to be, Jack was _good_ at hand to handbefore jogging over to Mr. Pierce.

When he got there, Brock was standing by the Mr. Pierce's side, along with a man named John Garrett and a woman named Katya UdinovSteve knew she could definitely kick every man there's ass without even breaking a sweat, so he nodded to her respectfully.

"Good evening, Sir," Steve said a bit breathlessly, looking between the four people. "What can I do for you?"

Mr. Pierce looked him over seriously, and Mr. ("No, please, call me _John")_  Garrett gave him a sickly sweet smile. "Come on, kid, we've got something to tell you." Steve frowned, a little confused, but nodded and followed them when they turned to leave. Brock and Katya waited a moment before filing in behind him, Mr. Pierce and Mr. Garrett leading the way. He felt a little boxed in, and the tense set of Brock's shoulders was making him anxious, but he forced himself to relax. Everything was fine. Probably.

After a few minutes they reached Conference Room 3, one of their more secure roomsit had a reinforced door and a hand scanner to get in and to get out; this confused Steve even more; why would they take him to this conference room unless it was something really serious? What was wrong?

When they'd all taken their seats at the conference table, Brock and Katya to either side of him and Mr. Pierce and Mr. Garrett across from him, Steve cleared his throat anxiously. "If you don't mind my asking, Sir, what exactly is going on?"

Mr. Pierce looked him over for a few moments, before he spoke. "Captain Rogers, we are going to reveal to you some information that you're _really_ not going to like. But, once you understand, I believe that you will see that we are on the right side of this. We've taken good care of you this past week, and I would appreciate it if you gave us the benefit of the doubt, alright?"

Steve only felt more confusion. "Of course, Sir. I mean, you've all been really great to me. Everyone is so patient if I don't understand something, and they all help me understand it in those times. I've made some great friends, here. I'm sure whatever you have to tell me can't be _that_ bad...right?" He ended a little unsure, glancing over at Brock and Katya to try and gage where they were. Brock was still sitting very stiffly, his expression guarded, but Katya gave Steve a reassuring smile and laid her hand over his, squeezing it lightly.

"Alright, Captain Rogers," Mr. Pierce sighed, "the truth of the matter is that we work for an organizationin fact, I'm one of the heads of said organizationthat fights against what you might consider 'the right thing.' We fight for the people; if you give people too much freedom, such horrible things can happen. Two World Wars, for example, and so many other wars. Our organization's purpose is to help the world's population in making the decisions that they are not ready to make. We do good work, Captain Rogers."

Steve frowned. "I...don't understand," he admitted, "why would I be against that? I mean, it just sounds like you're doing what a government would do, right? You're making the big decisions so everyone else doesn't have to. Isn't that what our government has always done?"

Mr. Garrett smiled widely. "Precisely, Captain Rogers. We're just doing what anyone else would do."

"So...why, exactly, would I be against it?"

Everyone in the room tensed ever so slightly, even Katya, whose movements were barely noticeable. After a few tense moments, Mr. Pierce sighed. "Because we go by the name Hydra, Captain."

For a few seconds it was so silent you could've heard a pin drop. Then Steve was in motion, jumping to his feet and sprinting towards the door. Multiple people cursed, and Steve felt two pairs of hands clamp down on him. He managed to yank out of three of the hands, but one had a good grip and didn't let go of his shirt. Steve reached the door anyway, but there was nothing he could dothe door was biometrically locked.

Steve whirled around, coming face to face with Brock, who owned the hand still grasping his shirt. Steve slammed a fist into the man's face, which made him stumble away, but then Katya was suddenly _there,_ throwing punches and kicking out.

"Steve!" She yelled, "stop fighting and just _listen,_ will you?" Steve didn't stop, he kept fighting, but he was loosingfighting against just Brock, he would've had a fighting chance; but against _Katya_ as well? No, she could kick his ass all by herself.

When the two of them managed to pin him, there was the slight pinch on his neck of a needle sliding in, and after another moment, his vision faded to black.

* * *

Steve woke up groggy and very unsure of where he was. There were voices around him but Steve couldn't make out what they were saying, and there were metal bands being secured to different parts of his body, locking him in place in what felt like a chair. Something was shoved into his mouth.

The murmur of voices suddenly cut off and then-

_pain._

The most intense pain Steve had ever felt, radiating throughout his head. He didn't know where it was coming from, but it was all consuming, keeping him from thinking about anything except the  _pain._

Eventually, the pain stopped. And then, after a while, it started up again.

 

"Any progress?" Steve  _knew_ that voice, but he couldn't place where from. P...something. P-something or A-something, he thought, but he wasn't sure how that fit.

"It's the same each day. The first six hours after the wipe are perfect; he's just like The Soldier, taking orders without question, doing anything and everything we require of him. However, after that, he continuing gets better and better until, at twenty-four hours, he's the same man he was before the wipe. We're at eleven hours right now. It's quite remarkable, really, the way the serum in his blood works, regenerating his brain cells again and again without fault."

There was a sound of annoyance, and then there was a hand on his chin, lifting his head. Steve blinked blearily, his vision a little foggy, and looked up at the sort-of-familiar face now hovering in front of him. It was an older man, with glasses, who was looking at him curiously.

"Are you in there, Captain?" The man's mouth moved and the words came out, but they seemed disconnected in Steve's mind. Steve didn't know how to reply to the words, didn't particularly understand what they meant, so he just stared back at the man and tried to remember where he'd seen him before. Nothing was clicking, so Steve gave up on trying; it would come back to him eventually. Probably.

* * *

Steve yanked against the metal bands restraining him to the chair, glaring at all of the technicians in the room. They all seemed to be waiting for something, none of them meeting his eyes. Frankly, Steve didn't really know why they weren't wiping him again; that's what they always did when he fully regained himself again. Steve didn't quite know why; if they knew he was going to get his fully memory back after twenty-four hours, why keep trying? The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result.

Finally, the door to the room slid open, and in walked Alexander Pierce, the freaking head of Hydra. He was dressed, as per usual, in a tailored three-piece suit. Katya came in behind him, in her normal fitted black shirt and pants, and dark red leather jacket.

"Good morning, Captain. I trust you slept well?" Pierce said congenially, hands in his trouser pockets. Steve simply glared back, scowling, not giving them any response. At his lack of answer, Pierce simply shrugged. "Ah, well. It doesn't matter. I'm here to talk to you about your new and complete loyalty to Hydra."

Steve couldn't help but scoff at that. "You're out of your goddamn mind if you actually think that I'm going to  _ever_ be loyal to Hydra. I won't do a single thing for you, Pierce."

Pierce just gave a knowing smile and tilted his head. "We'll see about that. Bring him in!" Suddenly, the door slid open again, and Brockno, no, he was  _Rumlow_ nowwalked in, looking slightly smug, which was a little disconcerting considering the circumstances. Behind Rumlow was another man. The man had shoulder-length brown andokay, and a  _metal arm,_ but that wasn't the weirdest thing Steve had ever seen, and the man's face

_Oh shit._

"B-Bucky?" Steve stuttered out.

It  _was_ Bucky, but, at the same time, it wasn't. His face was expressionless, his eyes staring lifelessly at the wall far behind Steve. His arms hung loosely at his sides, fingers not even twitching as he stood, perfectly still. There was something so... _blank_ about him, something so  _dead,_ that it made a shudder run up Steve's spine.

"Quite the sight, isn't he?" Pierce said proudly, going to stand by Bucky's side. He put a hand on Bucky's shoulder, and Steve yanked against his bindings at the sight, snarling and gnashing his teeth like a wild animal. "Zolayou remember him, I'm surefound Mr. Barnes, here, after he fell from that train. His left arm was mangled, completely un-salvageable, but Hydra had some pretty good tech lying around, so his arm was created; of course, it's been modified throughout the years as the world had a lot of technological advances, but it's quite similar to the original model."

Steve stared for a few moments, at a loss for words. After a bit, he cleared his throat and tried to speak up, but his voice was rough with emotion. "How...how did he survive the fall?"

Pierce looked over at Steve absently. "Hmm? Oh, well, that was all due to Mr. Barnes's original captivity, before you went and rescued him. They experimented on him, in a sense, giving him a very diluted version of the Super Soldier Serum. That's actually why we think the wipe worked on him but not on you; the serum in his blood still makes him stronger and faster, but he heals at almost a normal rate, while you heal incredibly quickly."

Steve couldn't help but stare at Bucky. It had only been two weeks since Bucky had fallen from that train, at least for Steve, and the pain of his death was still a very open wound. Seeing Bucky standing in front of him was life changing, even though Bucky wasn't quite himself.

"You're a smart man, Captain Rogers, I'm sure you can put the pieces together. How does Mr. Barnes fit into your new loyalty to us?"

The blonde snarled, understanding perfectly. "If I don't cooperate, if I don't do everything you say, you'll hurt him. You'll hurt Bucky."

Pierce nodded, satisfied. "Exactly, Captain Rogers, you got it in one. Now, you are going to be released from that chair, and _you are not going to attack anyone._ If you do, well, you will be subdued and Mr. Barnes will be hurt. Have I made myself clear?" Steve nodded, resigned, and Pierce nodded to one of the technicians, who pushed a couple buttons on his computer and the metal bands holding Steve down snapped open. Steve immediately jumped to his feet and rushed to Bucky's side, murmuring his name.

Pierce took a few steps towards the door, and then turned back. "Oh, one last thing, Captain Rogers. Hidden away in Mr. Barnes's metal arm is not only a tracking devise that works anywhere in the world, but an explosive devise that will make him and anything within two-hundred feet of him go _boom._ So I want to make myself _very clear,_ Captain; if you try to escape, whether you're on mission with Mr. Barnes or just hanging about this facility, I _will not hesitate_ to push a button and make sure you won't even be able to scrape pieces of him off the sidewalk, he'll be so demolished." There was a pause, and then Pierce smiled, completely at ease. "I look forward to us working together, Captain."

* * *

From then on out Steve's training really began. Each day he had lessons in German, Russian, tactics, modern history, as well as weaponry training and different forms of hand-to-hand. Steve's least favorite lessons were the ones on the organization known as SHIELD, because apparently Peggy was one of the founders, and he absolutely hated the idea of working to destroy something she'd built, even if it was for the sake of Bucky.

For the first couple of weeks, Rumlow, Garrett, and a woman named Elizabeth Tanner were his tutors in everything SHIELD, since they were high enough in the ranks and undercover at SHIELD. However, when they needed to be on missionseither for SHIELD or HydraKatya (who was also in charge of his Russian education and some of his hand-to-hand lessons) and Nicklaus Argent took over, having practically memorized all of the personnel and mission files from SHIELD. Steve was given a list of SHIELD's top agents, Hydra's own little 'Most Wanted' list, and forced to memorize all of their strengths and weaknesses, and how best to take them down.

The months passed slowly. Steve rarely saw Bucky, since most of the time they kept him in something called cryo (which was basically them just freezing him to keep him in stasis and make him live longer. That was, apparently, the reason Bucky was still young and not an old man.)

However, whenever Bucky _was_ off cryo, Steve tried to make him feel like as much of a person as possible, sitting with him while he ate and training with him. It made Steve very sad to do, since Bucky was unresponsive to everything he said unless he phrased it as an order, which Steve absolutely refused to do.

One day, five months after seeing Bucky for the first time, Steve had just gotten back from a mission and was grabbing a bite to eat in the small kitchen off the gym (he preferred it because he could be alone with his thoughts, instead of in the large mess hall) when Bucky entered. It wasn't that unusual, Bucky usually got his meals from that kitchen, too, when he was awake. So Steve said hello to him like he always did, not expecting a reply.

Bucky turned and stared directly at Steve after grabbing a sandwich. Steve stared back, surprised; Bucky's gaze rarely narrowed in on Steve, even if he was looking at him he wasn't _focused_ on Steve. But in that moment...he was.

"Buck?" Steve ventured cautiously, putting down his bowl of cereal and taking a few steps closer to his friend. "Do you...do you _see me,_ Bucky?"

"I know you," Bucky said absently, voice rough from disuse. The words were a statement, but the way his voice went up at the end made it seem like a question.

"Yeah, Buck," Steve said, unable to keep the relief from his voice. He walked closer until he was right in front of Bucky, carefully placing a hand on his shoulder. Bucky's eyes darted from that hand and back to Steve's eyes. "Yeah, you know me. I'm your friend."

Bucky was silent for a minute, the seconds ticking away in Steve's head, and then he spoke again. "Your mother...her name was Sarah?" Steve grinned and nodded eagerly. "Andmy sister...her name was Rebecca?" Once again Steve nodded. "Steve?"

Steve pulled Bucky into a hug at the vulnerable turn of his words, holding him tightly against his chest. "I've got you, Buck. I'm with you 'till the end of the line."

* * *

After that, Bucky began remembering much more, becoming more and more like himself each day. There would be times when something triggered him and he would fall back into The Winter Soldier mode, practically erasing all of their progress. But he always came back to himself; sometimes after an hour, sometimes after a week, but he always came back.

They did their best to keep it hidden from the Hydra agents, but anyone with eyes could see that most of the time Bucky was _there,_ the lifeless stare he used to adjurn completely gone. Steve didn't know why everyone was letting it goeven Pierce, while talking _at_ Bucky like he always did, didn't comment on the new Bucky.

It was May of two-thousand-and-twelve, ten and a half whole months since Steve had woken from his time on the ice, ten months since he had started working for Hydra. He had gone on countless missions, killed a lot of people (nineteen personally, seventy-two if you counted the bomb he set), and made friends that he hated at the same time that he liked them. But never, not one time in any of that almost-eleven months, had he ever _wanted_ to go on a mission.

"Katya, _please,"_ Steve begged his friend. For a while after the reveal that he was at Hydra, Steve had _hated_ Katya and everything she stood for. But, after a while, Steve decided he didn't have time to feel so angry at someone so absolutely a part of his life; the thought that she was loyal to Hydra just made him sad now.

"Steve, if I have told you once, I have told you a thousand times. The answer is no," Katya replied, never looking up from the book she was reading. She turned her page with a thin finger, and Steve fought the urge to slam the book shut.

"пожалуйста, пересмотреть," Steve said in Russian. _Please reconsider._

Katya sighed and finally put her book down, marking her place with a small piece of paper. She looked up at him, gaze steady, expression serious. "Steve," she said, "you know that I would let you go in a heartbeat if it were up to me. But _it's not._ The second this... _Asgardian_ came and stole the Tesseract, Pierce told us that he knew you would want to go and help, and that we were ordered to _under no circumstances_ let you go. You're just going to have to watch it on TV like the rest of us shmucks. This Loki fellow was just sighted in Germanylet's wait and see what happens."

Steve scowled and sat down next to her, staring up at the TV which housed a news feed. Right now it was showing the god-alien- _person_ forcing a crowd of people to kneel in front of him. Steve desperately wanted to be there, to help fight him. He wanted to go wake Bucky up out of cryo and drag him to fight _Loki of Asgard_ with him. But no, if Steve tried to take one unauthorized step out of the base, he'd be sedated, and Bucky would most likely be hurt.

So, he watched. He watched as an elderly man was killed for standing up to Loki _(I could've saved him)_ and then Iron Man appeared _(Anthony StarkHoward's son)_ and they managed to take him down _(that looked far too easy)_ and then...nothing.

For the next eight hours, nothing happened. Then, suddenly, a portal was forming over Stark Tower in New York, and aliens were pouring out, and the world was ending, and Steve _desperately_ wanted to be helping, until, an hour later, the portal closed and all of the aliens dropped dead. It was overthey'd won.

Steve couldn't help the _'_ _woop!'_ that fell from his lips, pumping a fist into the air. If Bucky had been there, he would've hugged him.

"Don't get too excited, Rogers," Katya said wryly. "This is when the clean-up happens. Feel lucky you're not a SHIELD agent."


End file.
